


Caught In The Storm

by mida_malek



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Supernatural, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Crossovers & Fandom Fusions, F/F, F/M, Gen, M/M, Multi
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-02
Updated: 2020-12-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 00:42:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,272
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27835465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mida_malek/pseuds/mida_malek
Summary: Dean Winchester is no stranger to waking up in the twilight zone, a universe different from his own, or in other words being a higher being’s personal toy. At this point it has happened to him so many times that he doesn’t even flinch when he opens his eyes in a new world!What he doesn't expect, is for his favorite superheroes to make an appearance.What now?!
Relationships: Castiel/Dean Winchester, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, others
Kudos: 11





	1. Life For Rent

**Author's Note:**

  * For [MidnightSilver](https://archiveofourown.org/users/MidnightSilver/gifts).



> Hey all! Long time, no see! haha. 
> 
> I'm back with another inspired work and this time I owe it to the awesome midnightsilver! Make sure to check out their works at https://midnightsilver.tumblr.com/ , and of course to check out the beautiful art that inspired this work: 
> 
> https://midnightsilver.tumblr.com/post/636318442679599104/my-art-submission-for-the-spn-reverse-bang
> 
> This is a work done for SPN Reverse Bang 2020, and I am uploading the first two chapters, but as you can see, the work will have 4 chapters in total! 
> 
> Hope you like it, and stick around for the ending! This is basically my attempt at fixing the ending that Dean and Cas did not deserve and giving them a better suited ending.

The first thing Dean sees when he opens his eyes are trees. Like, a whole lot of trees. There’s a word for that, he thinks to himself. He can feel branches and grass poking his bare back. And then it hits him.

“Forrest! I'm lying down, naked, in a fucking forest!” He mumbles to himself, getting up to his feet so fast he feels dizzy for a moment.

That’s when he sees Sam and Cas, standing a few feet away from him, and barely holding in their laughs.

“Why the fuck am I lying down naked in a fucking forest?” He snaps at them, sending the other two into full on laughter. He looks down, spotting his dark green tights, matching the dark green warrior harness and cuffs and his shoulder patches. He can kinda dig the black leather high boots he’s wearing, but the teeth necklace around his neck is just a bit too much for him to wrap his head around. If this is a Halloween prank Sam and Cas are pulling on him, he really has to give it to them. The details are just too real. 

That’s when he looks back up and sees what Sam and Cas are wearing. And really, who could blame him for laughing? 

“OH MY GOD!” He barely says before doubling over, laughing so hard his tears start rolling. This is too good! He needs his phone to take a picture of this work of art. 

Sam is in a gold full body cloak and tights, his feet BARE(does he not realize they’re in a fucking forest?) and Cas, oh Cas has gone full on elf! He’s wearing an ocean blue set of tight clothes that match the blue of his eyes, with an ice blue headband, pulling back his LONG hair! 

Cas has long hair. 

Dean can’t possibly un-see that. He thinks he doesn’t really want to. 

Ok, weird thought, thank you for poking your head out. Please go back to your dark corner in Dean’s head now. 

“Are you done?” Sam finally cuts through Dean’s laughter. “As amusing as it is to watch you in that outfit, this wasn’t us.” 

Dean frowns. That doesn’t make sense. 

“Then, wha…?”

“We don’t know, Dean. We both woke up like this in this forest as well. So far all our accomplishments have been finding each other and you.” Cas says, and it takes Dean less than a second to realize something is off. 

“What’s wrong?” He asks.

“Aside from the obvious?” Sam frowns.

“No, I mean yeah. Something is off with Cas. Can’t you tell?” Dean looks at Cas expectedly. 

“He’s right, Sam. There are a few things wrong with my vessel. I believe he is hard of hearing in this world, not to mention the absence of angelic power. I am still trying to figure it out…” 

“Wait, how hard of hearing are we talking about here?” Dean feels worry rise in his heart. 

“Very hard… I cannot hear anything… But I seem to know how to read lips very well, and I also can feel and see everything around us, like I could as an angel. It is an odd combination.”

_ “Can you sign too?”  _ Dean immediately signs to him, to which Cas nods at. 

“Wait, when did you learn ASL?” Sam asks Dean confused. Dean shrugs before answering and signing as he goes. 

“High school elective. ‘Kept learning. It’s good to have communicational skills Sam, it’s rude not to!” He grins.

“All this time I’ve been signing with Eileen?”

“Yupe. I understood all of it!” 

Sam looks like he has something to add to the conversation, but he is cut off when a strong female sounding voice in their ears starts talking.

“Strange, Dean, Can you hear me? Do you have eyes on Hawkeye?” 

A few things happen at the same time. 

Sam and Dean yell, because what the fuck! Is someone talking in their brain? 

Castiel doubles over in pain, reaching into his ear and pulling something out. 

And something red and big flies over their heads. 

Dean crouches down, putting himself in Cas’ eyesight and signs.

_ “Hey you ok? What is that?”  _

“I believe it’s a communication device. I think I’m fine, but it just sent a horrible shock through my head.” He shows Dean the small device and Dean realizes that’s what’s talking in their ears. 

“Dean?” Sam calls and his tone makes Dean snap around, seeing the source of his tension. 

Sam is holding his hands in the air, big glowing gold light circles with weird signs coming out of his fingers and holding the red flying object above them at bay. The red flying  _ human _ above them. 

And then it hits Dean. 

Strange, Hawkeye, Red Flying Metal Man! 

“Son of a bitch! Sam, put him down! Come on, stop that!” 

“Dean what the hell? I don’t even know how I’m doing this! What is happening? Why aren’t you freaking out?” 

“Because, Sam, I know what’s going on! Just, lower your hands and relax your fingers, it should make the magic stop!” 

“The magic? Dean I am years away from doing any kind of magic this powerful!” 

“Oh my God Sam, will you just fucking listen to me and put Iron Man down?” 

“Put Iron… what?” 

“Gentlemen, I believe I deserved a better welcome wagon than this! After all, I  _ am _ here to rescue you!” A man’s voice talks in their ears this time, and Dean has a second to check on Cas before Sam is letting the intruder down. 

Sam steps back, holding his hands up in a guarding position and Dean sighs, moving to offer a hand to the man in the red suit, who’s now on the ground. 

He looks up, his helmet going back the same time he takes Dean’s hand and gets to his feet. 

“Tony! Good to have you here!” Dean says and ok, maybe his inner fanboy is having a field trip. Who can blame him?

“Dean! Thank you for being the civilized one! What’s gotten into him?” He points at Sam and Dean rolls his eyes. 

“The usual! You know how wizards get! Hawkeye on the other hand, I think his hearing aid has been compromised, it just shocked him.” Yes, Dean is aware that he’s quick on his feet, thank you very much! 

“Oh my, can’t have that now, can we?” Tony moves towards Cas, as Cas stares with wide eyes, and takes the broken piece of tech, and produces another one from his suit. He hands it to Cas, and instructs him to insert the new one. Dean takes this moment to shake his head at Sam, hopefully they’re gonna be on the same page now. 

“Good thing I just finished with the latest upgrade before we got your distress call.” Tony says and then turns back to Dean and Sam. 

“What happened?” He asks and Sam takes the lead this time. 

“Not sure, we all just woke up here, no memory from before. That’s why at first I didn’t realize who you are…” 

“Ok, well, hello to you to Dr.! Now, I didn’t pick up any dangerous activity around the premise when I flew by. Whoever dropped you here must have taken off.”

“I think it’s best to head back to HQ, get some R&R and then tackle this later.” Dean inserts, because he’ll be damned to let an opportunity to see the Avengers Compound pass by. No sir! 

“Yeah, I think our body here especially needs to grab some Zs before he’s in shape to talk to us again!” Tony nods towards Cas, and reaches to his ear.

“‘Got that Nat? We’re flying the boys home! Seems safe for you to land the Quinjet.” 

“Clear as day! See you in a minute!” 

Dean is not going to ever forget the look on Sam’s face when the big ship suddenly appears in the air and slowly lands. 

All and all, it is a damn good day for Dean.

* * *

They don’t get a chance to talk alone until they’re all back at the compound, in Dean’s quartet. They’ve all showered and fed and are now sitting on the counter, all three thinking in quiet. 

Oh, and Dean has figured out that his wardrobe is lacking tops. Like any kind of tops. 

“Ok, so… what are we thinking?” Dean makes sure to sign as he speaks. The hearing aid Tony has made is brilliant but it still gives Cas a dull headache and there’s no reason to have it on when they’re all capable of signing in the room.

“I’m thinking it’s probably Chuck, right? I mean after the whole kidnapping fiasco he threw, I think he is really annoyed with us. Maybe he just decided to throw us in another universe for a while?” 

“And what, he chose this piece of heaven? Wouldn’t he throw us in with the dinosaurs? Why this world? Why make us Avengers?” 

“Maybe he finds your obsession funny?” Sam inputs and Dean ignores him. 

“What I don’t understand is who you are in this world, Dean. I mean, they call me Hawkeye, Sam Dr. Strange, but you, they have only called you Dean so far.” 

“Yeah, you two get awesome skills and I get an assclown who apparently has no regards for his upper body safety! Who the hell walks around half naked?”

“You really wanted to wear the flag, didn't you?” 

“Damn right I did! I could easily pull off the star spangled man outfit, Sammy! I mean, I have all the qualities Captain America has!” 

“You do have the ass for it!” Castiel says and they all go silent. What?!

“You know, the whole  _ America’s Ass _ bit they had?” Castiel elaborates and Dean smirks proudly. 

“Aha! So you  _ were _ paying attention when we watched End Game!” His boy has come so far. 

“Which brings up my next question, which Marvel World are we in anyways? I mean all we know for now is that Tony and Nat are alive, Barton, Cas, doesn’t have a family and is deaf. Strange is acquainted with them, and god knows who you are.” Says Sam.

“Yeah, I mean that is definitely RDJ walking around in his suit of Iron, but it doesn’t really keep track with the MCU, and I don’t remember Karl Urban ever showing up outside of Asgard!”

“Wait, you think you’re  Skurge  the Executioner?” Dean shrugs in response to Sam. Who the hell knows anymore. 

“I believe you are both missing the most important question here. How do we get out of this world and do we tell the team about our dilemma?” 

“Good point…” Dean starts but is cut off by Jarvis. Huh, so no Friday and no Vision yet. 

“Mr. Stark is approaching your door Sir, he is asking if he can come in.” Dean signs the message to Cas and only after the other two nod he speaks. 

“Yes, of course.” 

A few seconds later the door is opened and Tony pokes in his head. 

“May I come in? I’ve got Cap on the line. He wanted to make sure you’re all fine personally!” He rolls his eyes and lets himself in without waiting for Dean to answer. He motions at something invisible and suddenly freaking Chris Evans is staring at them on Dean’s wall along with an ASL interpreter on the bottom right side of the screen. So much for him being Captain America! At least they’re inclusive. 

“Hey team! It’s great to see you’re all in one piece! I’m even more interested to know what happened that got Strange to talk to you Dean.” 

Oh great, another world where Sam and Dean don’t talk to each other. A little originality would be nice, thank you very much. 

“Actually, there is something we need to talk to you about…” Sam starts and Tony turns to look at him instead of Steve. 

“This might be a little hard to wrap your heads around, but…”

“You’re not of this world!” Steve Rogers finishes Dean’s sentence. Ok, what?!

“Yeah… We kinda figured when you all were found together after the alarm went off.” Tony explains, glaring at Steve. “But we weren’t going to say anything until you felt comfortable to talk about it!”

“Ok, wait a damn minute. What alarm? What the hell is going on?” 

“I don’t think we are the first guests they’ve had in their world Dean…” Cas says, his eyes intently pinned on Tony’s features. “I don’t think this is the actual Avengers world either. That’s why you couldn’t pinpoint which universe it was. It’s none of the canon ones.” 

Tony shrugs, dropping himself on an empty chair by the counter and motions for Jarvis to explain. Steve sighs once, before Jarvis falls into an infomercial like speech. 

“Welcome to Bizarro World. We are aware that name belongs to the DC world, but our generous creator has decided to call us that ironically to make you uncomfortable. Here, you will watch all your deepest desires and dreams turn into your nightmares slowly. If you are here, that means you have pissed off God personally. You will only be let out and into your own world when he deems you reformed. Be grateful he did not smite you.” 

“Wait so, this world doesn’t exist?” Dean asks. 

“Of course it exists Wonder Boy, we’re all here aren't we? It’s just that this world is adaptable. Whoever is cast here, our world will take shape as their favorite world. And then they watch it go to hell. It’s your very own personal hell if you may.” Tony tries to explain. 

Dean looks at Sam and Cas, hoping they have some kind of insight. 

“So you’re not really Iron man?” Sam asks and Steve sighs. 

“He is. And I’m really Captain America. Or, as real as a fictional character can be. We were created from the image in your head…”

“It must be Dean’s head, ‘cause this is really very far from my favorite world… I mean no offense but I personally prefer my fiction with a hint of culture and history…”

“Hey! Where else can you have the Norse Mythology meet punching Nazis and alien planets?” Dean protests and looks at Castiel for back up. 

“So this is Dean’s favorite parts of all Marvel universes combined into one?” Cas asks, changing the subject. 

“I guess…” Tony shrugs and Dean suddenly has an idea. 

“Only one way to make sure. Hey Cap, you married?”

Steve frowns for a second before answering.

“What does Bucky have to do with this?” He snaps. 

“You’ll see!” Dean grins. “And Tony? What about you?” 

“Not that I’m aware of.” Tony shrugs and Dean smiles wider.

“It IS all my favorites! Wow.” 

“But why Dean? All three of us are here. Shouldn’t we have one each? Or like a mutual world?” Sam says and Dean snorts. 

“Hey, what’s the matter little brother? ‘You jealous?”

“No!” 

“Could you possibly have answered that any faster?” Tony adds, and Dean is really having too much fun for this to be his hell. Trust him, he’s been to his hell. It did not look like this.

Well except for the obvious fact that they have no way to get back to their own world. 

“So what happens now? Is everything you’re saying and doing scripted then?” 

“Oh no, we are really like any other world. And, even though we, as who we are right now, have no memory of the ones before, we know about them and we are done and tired of playing by these rules. We want stability.” Tony says and Steve nods. 

“We want our freedom!” He adds. 

“And you three are going to help us get it!” A new voice makes them jump in their seats. Dean turns so fast towards the source, he almost falls off his chair, but boy is it worth it. 

Nick Fury is standing in his kitchen. 

And he’s asking for Dean’s help. 

And if they get to stick it to Chuck in the process, then that’s just an added bonus. 

God should know better than to mess with Dean’s favorite band of superheroes. 

  
  
  
  
  
  



	2. Losing My Religion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How do you explain to a world-class band of superheroes that they are not a match for God, when one of them is quite literally a god himself. 
> 
> And Dean's not even taking Loki into count. 
> 
> The universe is really testing him this time!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will probably end up tweaking this chapter a bit later, add a bit more flavor to it. ;) Let me know if there is something specific you want to see!

“Ok, so, basically, whoever I want will be in this Avengers group?”

“Give the man a lollipop, he gets it!” Fury says sarcastically and Dean rolls his eyes at him. 

“Honestly, I’m starting to understand why Tony here never liked you!” 

“Well guess what, I ain’t here for you to like me! I’m here so you motherfuckers can survive!” 

“Can we please move this along? Some of us don’t have all day!” Natasha inputs and Dean nods, he gets how critical these first hours are. They could be setting the course for this whole operation. 

“Right now we have Iron Man, Black Widow, Hawkeye and Dr Strange in the building, as well as Director Fury and Agent Hill. Cap and Bucky are on their way back to the tower, and you have sent out a call to Thor and Loki, am I missing anything?” Dean asks the room and everyone nods. 

“Ok, Nat I need you to get Bruce, Wanda and Pietro down here. Tony, we need Peter and Shuri here, see if you can get T’Challa to drop in as well. Fury, we’ll definitely need Carol! Does anyone know how we can get in touch with the Guardians? We specifically need Gamora and Nebula, but I’ll always take Drax and Groot over nothing… And that leaves me I guess?” He stops to look at Fury in question. 

“I’m not really understanding your question!” Fury responds unhelpfully. 

“What am I good at? What can I do? Aside from looking great half naked.” He elaborates. 

“How would I know? You’re the dumbass who came up with this world!” 

“If I may?” Jarvis interrupts Dean’s premature protest and gets a glare in response. 

“Mr. Winchester is the equivalent of a god in this world. One could argue that he can possess any power and ability he’d like.”

“So, you’re telling me I’m Neo and this is the Matrix and you’re my Morpheus?” 

“Honestly, you’re worse than Peter with your stupid movie references!” Tony exclaims and Dean shrugs. 

“Hey, your very existence is based on my movie references!”

“Touche’!” 

And that is the end of their discussion, with everyone leaving to do their part, leaving Sam, Dean and Cas alone on Dean's couch. It’s still weird to think he has a place of his own, not sharing it with Sam or John or Bobby or… anyone really. It’s refreshing. 

“So, what are you going to do?” Sam breaks the silence and Dean looks up from his hands. Flying would be pretty cool, or reading thoughts. He thinks he’d also enjoy being immortal. You know, Cas’ version of immortal. Getting shot and walking away with a hole in his coat kind of deal. Maybe then…

No. He can’t go there. Not now, not yet. They have too much at stake. 

“I think I want to be able to adopt the superpower of whoever’s close to me. Like, in my 10 mile radius, anyone who’s there I’d be able to match their superpower. Isn’t that cool? That way, I can match Chuck’s power when he’s close.” 

“But what if no one is around you with a superpower?” Sam the ever party pooper asks and Dean shrugs. 

“Not like I’ve needed superpowers to survive till now! I think I can manage without.” 

* * *

It takes three days and seventeen hours for everyone, and Dean means  _ everyone _ , to gather in the Avengers Tower, and yes, Dean does keep yelling Avengers Assemble everytime someone new arrives and they need to call everyone else to greet them. 

No, he’s not sick of it yet, thank you so much Sam. 

And it takes three days and seventeen hours for Dean and Cas to fall into a new routine. With Sam in his own space and busy learning everything he can get his hands on about this world, Dean gets to share his floor with Cas, and they spend almost every hour awake, which is most of the hours, talking,  _ signing _ , and eating. Dean makes all his favorites for Cas, and with Cas’ new human senses, they get to enjoy drinking together. 

There’s something about signing that makes it easier for Dean to talk. He doesn’t feel as subconscious talking about his opinions, his memories, and his feelings, as he does usually. That’s how he finds himself relaxed into the couch easily, singing in a heated passionate discussion with Cas about the Avengers world the second night they’re there. 

_ “Why does your favorite world have Steve and Bucky in a relationship?”  _ Cas asks and Dean snorts. 

_ “Are you kidding me? Have you seen the two? I mean it’s all there in the subtext! The two were inseparable since childhood! Steve followed Bucky into the war! And Bucky followed Steve to the front line! When Bucky fell, Steve practically accepted his own death. It was clear he didn’t want to live in a world without Bucky! And don’t even get me started on the whole Winter Soldier plot!” _

_ “But I always thought you would prefer to have them in heterosexual relationships…”  _

_ “Why? I mean, don’t get me wrong, they probab;y look hot in any combo, but what they have is true love… They’re practically soulmates! The universe keeps bringing them back together against all odds.!”  _

Cas tilts his head to the side, like he does when he’s trying to read Dean’s mind and Dean has to remind himself Cas doesn’t have his angelic powers anymore. 

_ “Like you and I…”  _ Cas finally signs and Dean’s breath catches in his throat. 

What? 

Did he misread that? No. He can’t have. Cas probably just didn’t mean it like that. He realizes it’s been a hot minute since any of them said anything and if he wants to salvage their conversation he has to say something. 

Anything. 

Fuck it.

_ “Yeah, Cas. Like me and you!”  _ He finally signs and much to his wonder, the world doesn’t crash around them. Castiel doesn’t get up to leave, disgusted by Dean. Instead he smiles at Dean, and nods before extending his legs on the couch to mirror Dean’s position. 

_ “I think I understand… Their bond is similar to ours… They save each other and can’t seem to stop sacrificing themselves for eachother…” _

_ “Yeah…”  _ Dean’s pretty sure his heart’s beating so loud that Cas would hear it if he could. 

And that’s when Cap and Bucky decide to arrive. 

Dean’s not sure if he’s relieved or disappointed. 

Still, he gets to Assemble Avengers. 

* * *

The next morning after they’re all gathered in the tower, Dean is woken up by a familiar yet unidentified sensation. It’s not until he’s opened his eyes that he realizes what it is. 

It’s Cas. Staring at him. When he’s asleep. Again. 

_ “Dammit Cas!”  _ He frantically signs.  _ “I’ve told you not to do that! It’s creepy!” _ He sits straight in his bed, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. 

_ “But Steve watches Bucky sleep! And you said we’re like them!”  _ Cas signs back and Dean falls right back on his bed. Of course Cas is extending the Stucky relationship rules to their own. This has been happening ever since they had that conversation that night and Dean doesn’t know if he loves it or hates it. 

He has no idea if Cas feels the same, or even really knows what the implication is here. He finds his stupid heart growing hopeful and he has no idea if he should let it or not. 

_ “That’s different! Steve is just worried Bucky will have nightmares!”  _ He finally decides to sign back. 

_ “You were having a nightmare.”  _ Cas signs back, and Dean frowns. 

_ “What?”  _

_ “You were having a bad dream. You were thrashing and swearing. Jarvis called me. So I came to watch over you!”  _

Ok, yeah, Dean’s heart was definitely a goner. No use trying to get it back in his chest. 

He’ll have to give Jarvis a piece of his mind later. 

And if later never comes, well Dean just blames that on Chuck too. 

The douche really knows when to choose his moments. 

Jarvis lets them know they have a message from God and that everyone is waiting for them on the common floor to listen to it. 

* * *

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Dean half screams because Chuck’s message isn't a message. 

It’s a fart. Quite literally. It’s just five minutes of farting noises and even though under different circumstances Dean would find it hilarious, today it just makes him furious.

It doesn’t help that everyone is looking at him as if he is some kind of fart interpreter. 

Jesus. 

“Ok, that’s it. We need to sit down and make a plan. This douche clearly thinks he’s better than us. Let’s show him how wrong he is! Team Free Will 3.0 baby!” 

Ok so maybe not everyone shares his enthusiasm. What else is new, really. 

“The plan needs three parts. First, we need to get Chuck to this world. Second, We need to trap him! And third, we need to bind him.” He explains.

“Bind? Why don’t we just…?” Tony says as he drags his thumb on his neck, demonstrating killing Chuck. 

“Balance!” Sam answers, sitting forward on his chair. “The universe exists in the balance between darkness and light. If any of the two is gone, the universe will implode. We learned that the hard way.” He explains and Bruce nods. 

“That makes sense, much like the infinity stones in our world. If you take one out, the world begins to disintegrate.” 

“Exactly!” Dean says. 

“Ok well, how do you know if it’s even possible to bind God?” Natasha asks and Dean looks at Cas, hoping he’ll be able to explain this part. 

“Well, when God created the universe, he with the help of his four archangels, put Darkness in a cage, that lasted for millions of years, until Sam, I and Dean let her out.” 

“Wait, you set the darkness free?” Bucky asks. 

“Why?” Carol asks.

“How?” Loki asks, a little too interested, and Dean holds up his hand, motioning for everyone to stop. 

“Hold it! It’s a very long story, but the short version is, the key to the lock of her cage was a mark, that I unknowingly acquired, and it kind of turned me into a demon, and then Sam and Cas tried to save me and get the mark off of me, which led to breaking the spell and opening the cage and letting out the Darkness. I also accidentally killed death on that day. It wasn’t our brightest day really.” 

The whole room falls into silence for a second before everyone starts asking questions again and this time it’s Sam’s turn to calm everyone down. 

“The important part is that Amara, the darkness, God’s sister, has a connection to Dean, and we think he might be able to persuade her to help us trick and catch Chuck.” 

“Which leaves us with binding him!” Bucky says and Dean nods. 

“Yeah…” 

“That’s where we come in?” Steve asks, knowing well as a Captain, how a plan usually goes. Knowing very well who the soldiers are in a war. 

“Yes.” Dean confirms and Steve nods, his jaw set tight. 

“What did I miss?” Tony asks, his eyes narrowed and looking from Dean to Steve and back. 

“When God cast away Amara, he had help from his four archangels and a garrison of angels, and Amara had no suspicions. Even then it was a very bloody battle, many of my brothers and sisters perished, and God ended up having to give the key to his favorite son, Lucifer, which led to his corruption. In our battle, we do not have archangels, we don’t have angels, and we still have to choose who will have to bear the mark, the key to Chuck’s cage.” Castiel explains, and this time the room doesn’t recover from the quiet spell that is cast. 

* * *

_ “It should be me.”  _ Dean signs to Cas that night over dinner. He has been struggling with it for a while, and he knows Sam will fight him on it, but he has made his choice. 

Cas, to his credit, does not flip out. He looks at Dean carefully, studying him with a set jaw. 

And then he nods once before putting down his fork and starts carefully signing back.

_ “No! It should not be you!”  _

_ “Yes, it should! It makes sense! I’m tested! We already know I can take the mark, and we know Amara will feel better if she has to deal with me!” _

_ “No Dean! You can’t… it should not be you!” _ Cas signs desperately and Dean frowns. 

_ “Come on Man! I thought I could count on you to back me up on this!” _

_ “And why exactly did you think that?” _

_ “Are you kidding me? Logically I’m our best shot!” _

Castiel takes a deep breath before he starts signing again.

_ “You just can’t help it, can you?” _

_ “What are you…?”  _

_ “You have to sacrifice yourself! You don’t ever seem to care about how that might affect others around you! Affect me!”  _

_ “Cas, calm down!”  _

“NO!” Cas half yells, instead of singing and Dean flinches. __

_ “No!”  _ He signs this time.  _ “I’m not going to calm down Dean! What is this need for you to throw your life away? At every single chance you get?”  _

_ “Well who says I even have a choice? Isn’t Chuck the writer of this story too? Isn’t he making me do it all anyways?”  _

_ “You can’t possibly believe that…”  _

_ “The hell I can’t! Honestly most days I wouldn’t even be able to get out of bed if I didn’t have to! So, sue me if I think I have to take my chances to make my life mean something!”  _

_ “What, like it didn’t before? All of those times we fought side by side? All the times we laughed, we cried?”  _

“That wasn’t us!” It’s Dean’s turn to yell but Cas isn’t backing off. 

_ “Yes, it was! We can’t keep having this conversation Dean! I know Chuck is fucked up and played with our lives, but we still had choices at every turn!” _

__

_ “But…”  _

_ “No, Dean, you have to listen to me! We had choices… We have choices! You don’t have to throw away your life…” _

“What does it even matter to you?” Dean snaps and only feels a little bad when Cas’ lower lip starts shaking. Cas has no idea what Dean has to deal with everyday. He has no clue that Dean can’t possibly ever have what he wants. Who is he to tell Dean what he could or couldn’t do with his own damned life?

_ “God, I really thought this time is different! I thought being in this world, talking about Bucky and Steve, that you would be… that you would…”  _ Cas drifts off and Dean’s not sure if he’s more shaken by his outburst or the tears in his eyes. He’s not really sure what’s happening. 

_ “What do Bucky and Steve have to do with this?”  _ He finally signs and that’s clearly the wrong thing to say, because Cas suddenly gets off his chair. 

_ “You know what Dean? Nothing! They clearly have nothing to do with us! And I’m clearly very wrong. I can’t believe I’ve been such a fool, indulging myself with some stupid fairy tale. I believe we are done here…”  _ And with that he leaves, shutting the door behind him loudly. 

And Dean just sits there for hours, trying to make sense of what just happened. 

__

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


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**Author's Note:**

> Don't forget to send me kudos and comments!!!! 
> 
> Love to hear what you think!


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